Balloons with cameras a new tool for shark trackers

Video footage from a big, white balloon floating over Nauset Beach earlier this week showed a dark shadow in the water, possibly a white shark.

“There was a dark object moving offshore … and the technology picked it up,” said Joe Ciampa, the vice president of Altametry, which floated the Alta Smartballoon. “We can spot these animals out there.”

It turned out to be a seal, but that real time catch and surveillance of many other blubbery potential shark prey in the surf off Cahoon Hollow in Wellfleet the following day could bode well.

The balloon from Altametry may be a tool to help researchers and beach managers keep track of the white sharks that have become a frequent visitor to Cape waters in recent years.

“Certainly anytime there is an opportunity to investigate technology that can help us locate white sharks in the vicinity of the swimming area I’m interested,” said Nathan Sears, the director of natural resources for Orleans.

Sears was out with staff of the Florida company on Monday, the first day of a five-day pilot to see how the Smartballoons, outfitted with a high-definition camera, performed.

The regional shark working group, which Sears is on, discussed the potential of the balloons for shark detection over the winter. The hope was that they could assist researchers, who use both boats and spotter planes twice a week, find sharks and provide information to public safety officials.

The non-profit Atlantic White Shark Conservancy, which is partnering with the state on a five-year white shark population study, is funding the $7,000 project. (The company supplied a $3,000 grant to offset the cost.)

The work this week is expected to provide information on what lenses may work best, how many balloons may be needed to cover the public beach, whether wind would be a problem and if they would be effective.

Cynthia Wigren, the president of AWSC, said Nauset Beach was the first stop as it is popular beach with regular sightings, but the Altametry team also went to Wellfleet as white sharks had been spotted in that area recently.

Altametry staff spent Wednesday afternoon off Chatham in the area of so-called Shark Cove deploying the helium-filled balloon off a boat. (On Monday it was tethered to a station near the gazebo floating about 250 feet above the water.)

Ciampa said that both on the boat and at Nauset the team was going to see if the technology can be used at night with an infrared camera to spot sharks. Spotting sharks at night would be a boon for researchers.

“There is interest from the science side,” said Wigren.

The Smartballoons have been effective in many other settings, they can keep tabs on manatees according to the company’s website, and have provided security at the Tortuga Music Festival in Fort Lauderdale.

The balloons often are more effective than drones, said Ciampa, because they can stay up for long periods of time – the batteries just need to be changed every six hours. And, he added, unlike drones, which are limited by the FAA, the balloons can be flown over public gatherings.

The technology has been used with sharks before. An Alta Smartballoon filmed the entire sequence of the crew from the research group OCEARCH, hooking a 13-foot great white shark off North Carolina, bringing her up on the platform to be tagged, and then released.

But the Cape waters aren’t always kind. The Atlantic can be murky and challenging.

“I still have my concerns about how practical this will be on a daily basis,” Sears said.

Sears watched the footage in real time Monday – although the glare made it difficult to see clearly. But if it proves useful it can be sent directly to a monitored desktop as well.

Ciampa said they planned to test several balloons at once at Nauset to see how much area could be covered, and were hoping to broadcast directly into the Shark Center in Chatham, which is the home base of AWSC.

While the work continues, Sears will continue to fly the purple flags emblazoned with a white shark.

His department already has a robust program in place, which includes signage and a lot of education.

“We manage the beach under the premise that the white sharks are always in the vicinity of the swimmers,” he said.